Independent Safety Assessment

What is a railway IV&V assessment?

A railway independent safety assessment (ISA rail) assesses the overall system, including all subsystems, throughout the whole rail lifecycle to ensure the definition and implementation of the RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) concept is thorough and adequate. From as early as the planning phase, this independent verification and validation (railway IV&V) helps suppliers, operators and system integrators prevent failures before they occur and to ensure their systems are compliant to the railway-specific RAMS requirements and global standards. Railway systems are becoming increasingly complex which makes it challenging to accurately analyse and ensure system safety. To do so requires knowledge beyond technical safety and into operational safety and cyber security.

Why are railway IV&V assessments important?

An independent validation and verification of your entire railway system provides multiple benefits:

Minimise the risk of downtime and damage through early identification of quality and safety issues and the development of suitable counter measures

Generate the optimal combination of RAMS and costs by thoroughly assessing the RAMS interactions between the elements of complex railway applications

Attain project planning certainty with interdisciplinary support from independent experts to avoid costly and time-consuming rework

TÜV SÜD is your expert for railway system safety assessments

TÜV SÜD has extensive experience in assessing entire railways systems (overall system and subsystems) in different jurisdictions around the world. We provide independent checking engineer (ICE) services tailored to your specific needs by identifying the approaches most suited to your project from the outset. Additionally, we provide assessment services in compliance with global and regional railway safety standards based on best practices. Our ISA rail experts possess strong knowledge and experience in all disciplines and at all technical levels of brownfield and greenfield projects, ranging from computer chip evaluation to complete railway systems. TÜV SÜD is recognised as an independent railway safety assessor by many railway authorities and national safety bodies and is accredited as an inspection body in line with DIN EN ISO/IEC 17020.

TÜV SÜD’s overall ISA rail services

TÜV SÜD offers railway IV&V assessment covering the entire technical spectrum of a complete railway system. This includes all safety-critical subsystems such as rolling stock, signalling and infrastructure, as well as the integration of these subsystems into a complete system. Our experts can assess your system’s safety, reliability and operational performance with an ISA and certification service portfolio that includes: